TomTom and STMicroelectronics to offer geolocation tools and services

STMicroelectronics and TomTom are offering a package of development geolocation tools in the STM32 Open Development Environment.

The tools connect directly to TomTom Maps APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for location, tracking and mapping data services, accelerating product development, and reducing time-to-market and development costs for developers, the companies said.

The X-NUCLEO-GNSS1A1 expansion board is based on the Teseo-LIV3F tiny GNSS module. (Photo: STMicroelectronics)

The development package consists of an STM32 Discovery host board for 2G/3G cellular-to-cloud connectivity, a GNSS expansion board based on ST’s Teseo satellite navigation technology, and a software Function Pack that connects an internet-of-things (IoT) node via a cellular network to a range of TomTom Maps APIs.

With this hardware and software package and a TomTom developer account, developers can quickly add location-based services to their IoT and smart city applications.

Among these services are the translation of GPS coordinates into a street address inside a map (Reverse Geocoding), retrieval of nearby point of interests, and the production of accurate navigation directions.

“We have combined TomTom’s industry-leading location-based and mapmaking technologies with ST’s unrivaled combination of silicon and system expertise to create a unique offering that provides easy access to TomTom’s Maps APIs to empower developers to create groundbreaking, location-aware applications faster and more efficiently,” said Anders Truelsen, managing director of TomTom’s Enterprise Business Unit.

“Supporting our efforts to facilitate location-based product development, our collaboration with TomTom has built on each company’s strengths to assemble a tailored package of hardware and software tools that is already fully integrated with TomTom cloud services, around the popular STM32 development ecosystem,” said Alessandro Cremonesi, group vice president at STMicroelectronics. “These tools enable native STM32-based location services to accelerate application development of Geo-IoT solutions for fleet management, item tracking, and many other services that depend on fast, accurate location detection.”

In addition to the STM32 family of Arm Cortex-M core microcontrollers, the development tools leverage ST’s market-proven multi-constellation Teseo positioning-receiver technology to perform all positioning operations including tracking, acquisition, navigation and data output.